What to watch for
The importance of what he was able to accomplish in Game 4 is that Rondo is
not concerned with scoring, necessarily. His primary goal as a point guard is to
get into the painted area and force the Cavs defense to collapse. Once the
defense collapses he has choices. If the Cavs come to protect the rim then he
kick the ball out to his shooters. And Garnett, Allen and Pierce, although
struggling, are all very capable spot up shooters. If they do not protect the
rim and decide to stay connected to shooters then he will take it all the way
and www.valentinoshoessale.co.uk score.
For the Cavs to grab this allimportant Game 5 from the stingy hands of Rondo
and the Celtics they must stop the ball in transition. All eyes have to be on
Rajon when he gets the ball and starts to run their offense. It would be wise if
the Cavs would also do a much better job in keeping the small guard off the
boards. That alone will slow him down considerably.
Keep an eye early on Paul Pierce. If the Cavs switch and place James on Rondo
it will be interesting to see if Pierce is able to score at the rim on, most
likely, a much smaller or slower Cavs defender. Secondly, in regards to your
questions, I think that the rest is definitely important for Lopez more so than
Nash.
With the way the Suns' bench has played, Nash has had more rest than he was
getting throughout the regular season; so he is ready to go.
Lopez needs more time to practice at full strength with his teammates and he
should get a couple great runs in before the Conference Finals begin on
Monday.
In terms of chemistry, it is much easier to integrate a big man into the
offense than any other position. So I do not feel as though Chemistry will be an
issue with Lopez, a guy who is an instant upgrade from Jarron Collins.
Robin Lopez can simply go out there and rebound and clog up space defensively
and that presence alone should help the Suns, chemistry wise, more than
hurt.